Soundtrack to a Party, and Unrest in Brazil

At Brasil Summerfest, More Pointedly Political Lyrics

“The idea was to share this with people, for the public good and with no money involved, so that they would have something to sing out on the streets as they marched.” SEU JORGE, who recorded a politically charged new song called “Chega” (“Enough”), which became a protest anthem.Credit
Joshua Bright for The New York Times

The annual Brasil Summerfest, which began this weekend and continues through Sunday, has quickly established itself in New York as a reliably protean source of infectiously danceable melodies and rhythmic delights. But this year’s edition of the music festival, the third, also seems likely to feature a heightened quotient of pointedly political lyrics.

The festival includes performances by Gaby Amarantos, Marcelo D2, Toninho Horta, Tulipa Ruiz and others, at outdoor locations like Central Park SummerStage and South Street Seaport, as well as clubs like City Winery and Joe’s Pub. In one way or another, all the artists have been affected by the mass demonstrations that broke out in Brazil last month to protest corruption, extravagant spending on the 2016 Olympics and next year’s soccer World Cup, deficient schools and hospitals, and other social ills.

Jorge Mário da Silva, the 43-year old singer-songwriter and actor who goes by the name Seu Jorge and is performing at the Blue Note through Wednesday, serves as a case in point. When the demonstrations erupted, he was in Los Angeles, recording a new CD with the producer Mario Caldato, and forced to follow the situation as best he could online as he prepared to return home.

“If this thing were going on in Jamaica, certainly Bob Marley would do something, wouldn’t he?” Seu Jorge recalled asking Mr. Caldato. “And if something like this were happening in Nigeria, wouldn’t Fela Kuti have written some song?”

“The idea was to write something that would lead people to sing for their rights,” continued Seu Jorge, best known in the United States for his role in Wes Anderson’s “Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” and the album of David Bowie covers that came out of that film. “That’s more beautiful than shouting for your rights, don’t you think?”

The result is a politically charged new song called “Chega” (“Enough”), that has become something of an anthem for the protests, which continue sporadically. Seu Jorge arrived in Brazil on a Thursday, recorded the song the next day with his co-writers Gabriel Moura and Pretinho da Serrinha, had Mr. Caldato mix it over the weekend, and, presto, just a couple of days later, the song was posted online, on YouTube and as a free download.

“No more impunity, no more inequality, enough!” the song, which features a funky electric piano riff and a lilting flute, begins, before going on to complain, “Enough of not having a house to live in, enough of not having money to pay the bills.” The chorus proclaims, “Brazil, your time has come, Brazil, it has to be now,” and “Brazil, this is a rare chance!”

“The idea was to share this with people, for the public good and with no money involved, so that they would have something to sing out on the streets as they marched,” Seu Jorge explained during an interview on Saturday afternoon. “Look, the demonstrations don’t have a leader, a party or some guiding figure, so we wanted to do this in the most natural way possible.”

That’s not to say that all the performers in the festival share Seu Jorge’s enthusiasm. The 27-year-old rapper Emicida, who will be performing Saturday at Brooklyn Bowl, was on tour in Portugal, Germany and Switzerland at the peak of the protests last month. He said he felt no special need to return to take part in the demonstrations, which he continues to regard skeptically, even dismissively.

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“So a bunch of middle-class white people have finally woken up and taken to the streets,” said Emicida, born Leandro Roque de Oliveira. “I’m part of the Brazil that never fell asleep.”

But the rapper Marcelo D2, who will perform Thursday at the club Nublu in the East Village, also has found himself excited by the protests. Though the Nublu show is also a release party for a new CD, “Nothing Can Stop Me,” it contains tracks with titles like “I’ve Got the Power” and “The Time Is Coming.” “In a certain sense, I never thought I’d live to see this happen,” he said.

“For 20 years, I’ve been making music urging people to take to the streets, so there was no way I could not participate. I went with my wife and son, we had rubber bullets fired at us, we carried placards, the whole thing. Even if nothing changes, we’ve still opened up new possibilities, and people are going to think of politics in a different way.”

Marcelo D2, 45, whose birth name is Marcelo Maldonado Peixoto, said that while he has been “tweeting and Facebooking like crazy” since the protests began, he hasn’t yet written any new songs directly referring to recent events. “I need time to absorb what’s been going on, besides which I also don’t want it to seem like I’m using this big moment of change to market myself.

“I don’t want to look like an opportunist. Brazil is more important than my own success.”

Instead, he said, he is restructuring his live show so that it includes more songs, both old and from the new CD, that can be seen as predicting or making observations about the mass mobilizations. “This is a moment to reaffirm everything I’ve been saying,” he said.

Seu Jorge, a prodigious investigator of the Great Brazilian Songbook, is also looking for existing songs he can incorporate into his set to comment on the current situation. He’s had hits with songs like “Social Problem,” sung from the point of view of the street kid he once was himself but has also found inspiration in the samba, the touchstone style of all Brazilian music.

For him, he said, one of the highlight of his shows at the Blue Note is an a cappella rendition of João Nogueira’s “Minha Missão” (“My Mission”). During the interview, Seu Jorge began to sing the song, which he said he regards as a timeless statement of an artist’s obligation to his society and public, not just in Brazil but anywhere.

“When I sing, it’s to relieve my tears, and the weeping of those who have already suffered so much,” he sang in a smoky, relaxed baritone, his eyes closed. “I sing to denounce the lash of the whip, and I sing against tyranny. I sing because in a melody I can ignite in the heart of the people the hope for a new world and the struggle to live in peace.”

Correction: July 22, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the day of an upcoming performance by the rapper Marcelo D2. He will perform at the club Nublu on Thursday, not Wednesday.

A version of this article appears in print on July 22, 2013, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Soundtrack To a Party, And Unrest In Brazil. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe